ABSTRACT

First publ. B & P vii (DR & L), 6 Nov. 1845, the last poem in the pamphlet. EBB. first saw the poem in proof, and suggested a number of minor changes (Wellesley MS; all her comments recorded in the notes are from this source). Repr. 1849, 1863 (when it was placed in Romances: see Appendix A, p. 464), 1868, 1872, 1888. Our text is 1845. The date of composition is not known; the late summer of 1845 seems likely, because of the topic of courtship, and the fact that EBB. first saw the poem in proof. Cp. two passages from consecutive letters written by B. and EBB. in July 1845. In the first (13 July) B. writes: ‘I have been looking thro’ a poem-book just now, and was told, under the head of Album-verses alone, that for A. the writer would die, & for B. die too but a crueller death, and for C. too, & D. and so on. I wonder if they have since wanted to borrow money from him on the strength of his professions’ (LK 121). In her reply (16–17 July) EBB. speaks of a ‘letter, I had yesterday, which calls me‥ let me see how many hard names‥ “unbending,”‥ “disdainful,”‥ “cold hearted,”‥ “arrogant,”‥ yes, “arrogant, as women always are when men grow humble”’ (LK 124). The letter was from the Rev. George Barrett Hunter, another suitor of EBB., who was unknown to B.